PERFUMERY
1452
PERICLES
and a "complex marriage" was established between all the males and all the females of the "family." In 1880 the pressure of outside influence caused the communitiy to change their mode of life in many respects. Marriage and the ordinary family relationship were introduced; communism of property gave place to a joint-stock company organization; and various co-operative institutions were established. Noyes, who assisted in making these changes, died on April 13, 1886.
Perfum'ery or Per'fumes, the delicate smells arising from certain odoriferous bodies. Perfumes are of two distinct classes: those derived from plants and those of animal origin. Of vegetable perfumes the most ancient are those gum-resins which exude naturally from trees and plants or from wounds inflicted to increase the yield. Among the most important gum-resins are myrrh, benzoin and camphor. Gum-resins form the chief ingredients in incense and pastilles.
A second group of vegetable perfumes are those procured by distillation. These were formerly termed quintessences, but are now called ottos (from Turkish attar), the attar or otto of the rose. The process of distillation is a simple one. The fragrant part of the plant is put into the still and covered with water. When the water boils, the ottos arise with the steam, from which they are separated by decanting. One hundred pounds of orange or lemon peel will yield about ten ounces of the fragrant oil; 100 of nutmeg 60 to 70 ounces of oil of nutmeg; other substances in various proportions.
But, as many flowers do not yield their essential oil by distillation, two other processes have been devised for obtaining it: enfleurage and maceration. In the former process square boxes with glass bottoms are piovided, upon which is spread a mixture of lard and suet, melted and clarified. Fresh flowers are spread every morning upon this grease, the box being kept closed until the grease absorbs their odor. When the grease has been enflowered, that is, saturated with scent, the process generally lasting three weeks or more, it is again melted and strained into canisters, and then is ready for use. Perfumes are also obtained from flowers by maceration, that is, by placing them in oil or melted fat for several hours and continuing the process with new flowers until the oil or fat becomes fragrant with their odor. The best-perfumed grease is obtained from some flowers by enfleurage and from others by maceration, while others will produce the most satisfactory results by both processes — enfleurage followed by maceration.
Some extent of the industry may be obtained from the average weight of certain flowers grown in the south of France:
Orange blossoms, 5,500,000 pounds; roses, 4,400,000 pounds: violets, 330,000 pounds; jasmine, 440,000 pounds; and an equal quantity of cassia and tuberoses.. Europe and British Jk>di alone consume about 150,000 gallons of handkerchief perfumes yearly. The English revenue from French eau de cologne is $40,000 a year and from other imported perfumes $200,000.
The principal perfumes of animal origin are musk, civet, ambergris and castor, of which musk is most highly prized. The aroma of musk imparts odor to every body or thing with which it comes in contact. Its power to impart odor is so great, that polished steel will become fragrant with it, if they are both placed in a closed box for a sufficient length of time. In the manufacture of perfumery, tincture of musk is mixed with other odorous bodies to render the scent more permanent. See Rose Industry of Bulgaria, Piesse's Art of Perfumery and Atkinson's Perfumes and their Preparation.
Peri (pe'rt), according to the mystical lore of the east the child of fallen spirits, which spends its life in all imaginable delights but is forever excluded from the joys of paradise. It occupies an intermediate place between angels and demons, and is either male or female. Like the fairies in our own popular mythology the female peris possess surpassing grace and beauty. The houri is a nymph of the Muslim paradise.
Per'ianth, the general name of the floral leaves of a flower, including, both calyx and corolla. It is more especially used in case the calyx and corolla are similar in appearance, as in the lily.
Per'iblem (in plants ). At the apex of the stem or root of the higher plants the great regions are first organized in an embryonic form. The embryonic region which organizes the cortex (which see) is the periblem. and it lies just within the dermatogen (q.v.), which is the embryonic epidermis.
Per'icarp (in plants), a name chiefly used in connection with the fruit of seed-plants (Spermatophytes) and applied to the transformed ovary, which invests the seeds as a variously modified outer wall. A pea-pod, exclusive of the peas, is the pericarp. In apples it is the parchment-like investment of the core; while in the peach the pericarp includes both the flesh and the stone, the kernel being the inclosed seed.
Pericles (per't-klez), the greatest statesman of Greece, was born in the closing years of the 5th century B. C. He received a thorough and extensive education, but of all his teachers the one whom he always held in the highest regard was Anaxagoras, the humane philosopher. Pericles was noted throughout his public career for quiet dignity of manner, grandeur of eloquence, sagacity, honesty and profound patriotism. When
